Out on Vacation

Hey folks! I've been pretty busy getting things together for my trip to Paris next week, so I am going to stop pressuring myself to post anything before I go. I'm heading out with my girlfriends on June 22nd and will be back July 1st. Wish us luck and if you've been there before - feel free to leave recommendations on what to see and do in the comments! I won't be able to post while we're there, but you can bet that I will be posting on our trip when we get back! Au revoir!

Take Me Out to the Ball Game...

My nephew, Joseph, is playing in his first organized sport, T-ball. My sister Caroline and I wanted to see him play in a game before his little league session was over - so we drove out to the playing field this past Monday to cheer him on.
I don't know how successful he's going to be with his ball cap over his face, but Joe took direction well from his rather intense coach. That dude was serious. The boys weren't however, especially since this was a game with 4 and 5 year olds!

I thought this was a sweet picture between father and son!

Mara was a good sport about the whole sitting on the sidelines thing. She, of course, used this opportunity to practice her "man beguiling" skillz. Also, aren't those rain boots the cutest thing you've ever seen!?

It was fun to see Joe all dressed up in sports clothes. This little guy definitely takes after my side of the family in that he would rather be reading a book than running around all hot and sweaty outdoors, so seeing him in this environment was a real treat! I could tell that he loved having his family there cheering him on from the sidelines. Every time he ran to homeplate he would suddenly have this burst of energy when he would hear us yelling encouragement. Goodness, I love these little people!

The Walk of a Thousand Agonies

Okay, okay. Maybe that's overstating things slightly. This past Saturday, my good friend and Paris travel companion, Elena, came over for some Italian food and a movie. After dinner, we thought it would be a great idea to break out our vacation shoes and walk to Ted Drewes for ice cream. Ted Drewes is about 1.5 miles from my apartment, so I thought I would take my camera and snap some photos of my neighborhood along the way.

Here is the lovely Elena showing the tree lined streets and comfortable shade my neighborhood offers. It's perfect for long walks or runs if you are so inclined - I'm not. I much prefer an exercise bike.

Our neighborhood if chock full of old churches. Francis Park, has 4 on each corner. I think it looks sweet! The one below could be straight out of England.

My neighborhood was built around the 1920s and there is a great mix of Art Deco apartment buildings and single family homes.

Francis Park, is also bordered by these funky homes.



It was during our walk past these homes that I noticed that my right ankle was hurting a bit. I took my shoe off, and sure enough, I had a blister about the size of a quarter. We had no phones, no cars (obviously) and were about 6 blocks from Ted Drewes, so we decided to keep going and that I would just walk barefoot.

On our way there, I received a number or curious looks, but just shrugged it off. We did jokingly say a prayer that someone we knew would be at Ted Drewes, as at that point my feet were hurting quite a bit and the prospect of walking all the way back home in my bare feet was not very exciting.

At last, we arrived at the ice cream stand and scanned the crowd for any familiar faces. No luck.


The lines move fast though, and the seasonal high school ice cream workers are taught to memorize the orders when they are given at the window and don't need to write anything down. Isn't that kind of neat?

Here's the famous frozen custard, but was it worth it? Always.

As it turns out, Elena did eventually find an old student she knew from her youth ministry days. She felt a bit awkard though, about bumming a ride so we ended up walking home and I looked like this:
I learned that concrete has serious texture and the more texture there is, the more it feels like you are walking on hot coals. Yes, there is grass to walk on, but I am allergic and frankly the feel of it makes my skin crawl. We made it home eventually and never have I been more happy to see my home lights. Now, the question is what to do with my shoes? I'll just try breaking them in some more before the trip.

It also turns out that a friend of my sister also saw us at Ted Drewes that evening. So, God totally answered our prayers twicefold, we just didn't see it. When Aili, asked her friend if she noticed I was walking around in bare feet, she said "Yes. But I just thought she was trying to be natural or something." Nice!

Puff

I know dandelions are pests and weeds. But, oh, so pretty when they turn in to puff balls!

The Hype

So, I have the coolest brother-in-law in the world. This past Friday, he reunited with his high school band "The Hype" (an homage to early U2) and played at Helen Fitzgerald's to a large crowd of friends and family. It was the first time in over 20 years that they have played together (not including all those practice sessions for the show).

The music was awesome, as we knew it would be. Listening to him play brought back a lot of memories, not just for myself, but for many people there who spent most of their twenties going from club to club listening to Mike's other band "The Imps" play all over St. Louis. Those were some good times.

My sister, Aili, happily attended his shows as all good girlfriends do. 13 years later - a new career, a wife and 3 kids hasn't lessened Mikes love of music and how much we love hearing it. My other sisters and I joke that Mike has ruined all future boyfriends for my parents, since it naturally follows that no one will be able to compare to him. Also, if he were to be reading this, he would be rolling his eyes right about now.

Evil Has A Face

Oh, isn't he sooooo cute!? What a darling baby squirrel. Or so I thought when I spied this little munchkin on the lawn as I was heading in to my apartment after work. Of course, I stopped and started cooing at the wee babe. I was greeted with these horrific snorts and the crazy thing started charging at me and chasing me all over the lawn.

I barely made it in to my building with the little devil hot on my heels.

He looks so sweet on the other side of the glass. Kind of like little Oliver Twist - "Please ser, may I have a wee bit 'o porridge?"


My sister, hearing my yells came out and was as surprised as I was to see the tiny demon trying to charge the door and chirping horrible oaths. He didn't stop trying to find a way in until he couldn't see us on the other side of the glass. He eventually scampered under the bushes. No doubt hatching evil plans for an ambush. I am going to be extra cautious tomorrow morning as I walk to my car.

Monthly Theme: Flowers

Alright, already - it's not a flower. None of the pictures I took this past weekend turned out very well except for this photo I took of a Japanese maple. So...it's in the plant family. Isn't that red just the best color? You'd think it was Fall.

A Cake By Any Other Name...

It was my mother's 60th birthday last weekend. Having become the resident birthday cake maker, my mom requested carrot cake for the festivities this weekend. Now, I can actually bake a good cake. I cannot, however, decorate it to save my life. Queue, cream cheese icing that tastes great but is not quite stiff enough to stick to the sides of the cake. Add a parent's house whose air conditioning was on the fritz and you have a cake that litterally melts down the sides. Lovely.

It still tasted awesome though.

What lies beneath

That would be the world's laziest cat. "Nonsense" Darcy says when I am adding a warm blanket to my bed and any other normal cat would leap off. "It's just fine under here."

Fruit Galette

If there is one thing I like to do, it is having friends over for dinner. I love coming up with the menu, shopping for the ingredients and cooking it all up. On a cold, yucky Saturday in March, I had friends over for parmesan chicken and pasta with artichokes and capers. The highlight of the evening was to be homemade apple pie and ice cream. Imagine my chagrin, then, when I discovered that although I had all the ingredients for an apple pie, I had no pie plate bake it in. Apparently, I had somehow managed to leave both of them at my mother's house. Enter, my dear Martha Stewart. I opened up Martha Stewart's Cooking School, and quickly found a recipe for a pie without a plate.

This was my first time making pastry dough from scratch and I would say that it turned out okay. I think the dough was definitely too dry and explaines why I had such a horrendous time trying to roll it all out. Nevertheless, any apple pie-like concoction tastes better with ice cream on top. This is the closest online recipe to what I found in the cookbook. I'm more determined than ever, though, to bake a pie if it kills me.

Artapalooza

The gallery that sells some of my mother's work had a show this weekend.

My mom typically works in oils, but she's been experimenting with collage lately. She submitted several of her collages for this show and here are two of my favorites (above and below)!

What is so neat is that my mom is able to share her love of art with a close friend and amazing artist herself, Gail Schenk. Below is my favorite work of hers from the art show this weekend as well.

Isn't it gorgeous?!

I didn't meet the artist who hand painted and upholstered this chair, but I just thought it was lovely!!

Spring Outing

The weather was beautiful last week. What made it even better was being on spring break and actually being able to enjoy it. My sister, Aili, called me (woke me) last Thursday morning to invite me and Caroline on a trek through Powder Valley. Since we can never spend enough time with the little ones, we readily agreed.

Missouri trees aren't quite bursting in to bloom just yet. Although it is going to happen any minute now.

What has started growing is the vines and shrubs underneath the trees. I love that new, young green that is all over the place in spring.

Maybe not new or young, but definitely green, don't you just love moss? Also this photo is my posting for our March Theme of the color green.

Is that just the neatest twisty vine, or what?!

Everything is new and exciting when seen through the eyes of a 3 year old.

Mississippi Bound

I had a great time visiting my best friend, Shalyn, in Mississippi where she teaches Victorian Literature at the university. For the last three or so years, our spring breaks have coincided. We've always planned small mini vacations during that time and went to Mexico last year and New Orleans the year before. Since we are going to Paris this year we planned on just relaxing in Starkville. And that we did - the above photo is of Mugshots one of the nicer bars in town - where we spent some time with friends celebrating St. Patrick's Day. Shalyn, I had a lovely time!

Early Spring Breeze

It's almost here...

This is the first flower of the spring season that I came across. It just makes me so happy to see everything coming back to life!